HOOVER, Ala. (Press Release) — The Southeastern Conference on Monday announced its 2019 Baseball Awards and All-SEC Teams, recognizing standout performances from this season. The 2019 SEC Baseball Tournament will be played Tuesday through Sunday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Vanderbilt’s JJ Bleday was named the SEC Player of the Year, Mississippi State’s Ethan Small is the SEC Pitcher of the Year, Mississippi State’s JT Ginn is the SEC Freshman of the Year, Vanderbilt’s Tim Corbin is the SEC Coach of the Year and Tennessee’s Garrett Stallings is the Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Bleday leads the SEC in several offensive categories, including home runs (25), runs batted in (64), slugging percentage (.748) and total bases (160). He became Vanderbilt’s single season home runs leader on April 21 and has reached base in 82 of his last 83 games.
Small is 8-1 with a 1.84 ERA in 83.0 inning pitched this season. In SEC games, Small limited the opposition to a .153 batting average and 99, strikeouts, both of which led the league. For the season, Small has struck out 139, which is No. 5 on Mississippi State’s single-season strikeouts list.
Ginn is 8-3 with a 3.12 ERA for the Bulldogs. He ranks in the top-10 in the SEC in wins, strikeouts (95) and games started (14). Ginn was twice named the SEC Co-Freshman of the Week.
Corbin, in his 17th season as Vanderbilt’s head coach, was voted SEC Coach of the Year for the third time in his career. He led the Commodores to the SEC championship and 45 wins in the regular season. Vanderbilt has been ranked in the top-two nationally for much of the season.
Stallings holds a 3.41 grade point average in supply chain management. He is a Student-Athlete Advisory Council representative, a member of VOLeaders Academy and a past member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll. Stallings is among the SEC leaders with eight wins and a 3.12 ERA.
2019 SEC Baseball Awards
Player of the Year: JJ Bleday, Vanderbilt
Pitcher of the Year: Ethan Small, Mississippi State
Freshman of the Year: JT Ginn, Mississippi State
Coach of the Year: Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Garrett Stallings, Tennessee
First-Team All-SEC
C: Philip Clarke, Vanderbilt
1B: Tanner Allen, Mississippi State
2B: Justin Foscue, Mississippi State
3B: Austin Martin, Vanderbilt
SS: Grae Kessinger, Ole Miss
OF: JJ Bleday, Vanderbilt
OF: Jake Mangum, Mississippi State
OF: Alerick Soularie, Tennessee
DH/UT: Nelson Maldonado, Florida
SP: Ethan Small, Mississippi State
SP: Emerson Hancock, Georgia
RP: Tyler Brown, Vanderbilt
Second-Team All-SEC Team
C: Cooper Johnson, Ole Miss
1B: Trevor Ezell, Arkansas
2B: LJ Talley, Georgia
3B: Aaron Schunk, Georgia
SS: Casey Martin, Arkansas
OF: Dominic Fletcher, Arkansas
OF: Heston Kjerstad, Arkansas
OF: Antoine Duplantis, LSU
DH/UT: Matt Goodheart, Arkansas
SP: TJ Sikkema, Missouri
SP: Zack Thompson, Kentucky
RP: Matt Cronin, Arkansas
Freshman All-SEC Team
JT Ginn, SP, Mississippi State
Kumar Rocker, SP, Vanderbilt
Doug Nikhazy, SP, Ole Miss
Cole Henry, SP, LSU
Cole Wilcox, SP, Georgia
Patrick Wicklander, SP, Arkansas
Connor Noland, SP, Arkansas
Ryan Bliss, 2B, Auburn
Christian Franklin, OF, Arkansas
Joseph Menefee, RP, Texas A&M
Kendrick Calilao, 1B, Florida
Brett Kerry, RP, South Carolina
SEC All-Defensive Team
C: Cooper Johnson, Ole Miss
1B: Trevor Ezell, Arkansas*
1B: Julian Infante, Vanderbilt*
2B: LJ Talley, Georgia
3B: Austin Martin, Vanderbilt
SS: Cam Shepherd, Georgia
OF: Dominic Fletcher, Arkansas
OF: Jake Mangum, Mississippi State
OF: Zach Watson, LSU
P: Garrett Stallings, Tennessee
